J. Robinson getting rude reception

Orioles notebook

March 14, 1991|By Jim Henneman | Jim Henneman,Evening Sun Staff

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The second time out was a bittersweet experience for Jeff Robinson.

The bitter part for the righthander who was obtained from Detroit in the Mickey Tettleton trade was nine runs charged to him in 2 1/3 innings. The sweet part, if there can be such a thing in this instance, is that eight of the runs were unearned.

All eight came in the second inning, when Juan Bell and Bill Ripken made two-out errors. Immediately thereafter the Boston Red Sox began a parade of baserunners that produced a 16-7 victory.

It was the second straight ineffective outing for Robinson, who gave up six runs and nine hits in 2 2/3 innings against the Yankees last Saturday. It was also the second straight time he pitched under extremely windy conditions that made everything an adventure.

John Mitchell was treated even more rudely, giving up eight hits and six earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. He was unable to retire a batter in Boston's six-run fourth inning, giving way to Anthony Telford, who escaped with only one run in three innings.

* PAIN IN THE ...: Glenn Davis had precautionary X-rays of his neck taken yesterday and they revealed nothing more than a mild spasm. The first baseman did not work out yesterday, is not expected to play in tonight's game against the White Sox, and could be held out of tomorrow's game against Minnesota.

* EXHIBITION EXPLOSION: More than 30,000 tickets have been sold for the Orioles' exhibition game against the Yankees at Joe Robbie Stadium March 30. That's almost 4,000 more than the largest baseball exhibition attendance ever recorded. The Orioles and Yankees played before 26,417 on March 25, 1989.

In addition, 18,000 tickets have been sold for the Orioles-Yankees game the next day, Easter Sunday. It is expected that attendance for the two games, buoyed by Miami's prospects of landing a National League expansion franchise, will approach 70,000.

* BIG BEN ON TV: Ben McDonald will make his third appearance of the spring Saturday against the Texas Rangers. The game will be televised by WMAR, with Jim Palmer expected to make his official return to the announcing booth. WBAL will carry the radio broadcast.

Mike Flanagan, Mike Mussina and Mark Williamson are scheduled against the White Sox tonight. Dave Johnson, Kevin Hickey and Mike Linskey are slated to face the Twins tomorrow afternoon (1:05, WBAL-AM 1090), with Jose Mesa, Arthur Rhodes, Joe Price and Chris Myers facing the same team in a "B" game in the morning.